Something I've been wondering about is how IT teams are expected to keep everything running smoothly, solve technical issues, maintain security, and support other departments, yet they're often treated as a cost rather than an investment.

Is this is common across the IT industry, or does it depend on the company and its management? For those working in IT, does your organization take infrastructure and staffing seriously, or does it usually take a major problem for management to pay attention?

Been working at this company for a little more than a year and got promoted to being the main support/report writer for our new ERP system a few months ago. I do love learning and writing code but literally every day for the past few months has been researching about the system, writing SQL reports, answering questions, helping with ERP-specific floor issues, and I feel like my brain is completely mush most days. Genuinely it's a good job, but a lot of days I sit at my desk and struggle to get my brain both working enough to keep learning/figuring stuff out and modivated enough to do the next step for big projects, and honestly half the time i struggle to even remember what i was just doing/supposed to do.

How do you guys refresh your brains when it feels burnt out from how much learning/problem solving you're doing? I try walking around or going for a bathroom break but it doesn't seem to help much. After work I try not to do anything too thought intensive but it doesn't really seem to refresh it. This is my first full-time job after college so I'm still learning how to mentally manage it all.

This occupation is for a Entry IT Help desk. I'm also a internal employee working at the company for 2 years and also having a HR recommendation and networking with another HR to get me into a interview.

edit: I dont have technical experience but I've gained personal experience with home labs for a year and ticketing simulations for 3 months so I nailed the technical questions. I have 2 years in customer experience as a cashier on-call and face-to-face.

It worked and I got a in-phone and yesterday a in person interview and now tomorrow I have another interview with the director.

I fear deadly that I might not get hired but also what more questions would they even ask me?

I already went through so much and even the 2nd interview they ask repeated questions from the 1st (only like 2 repeated questions.)

What should i prepare for this time?

I’m currently pursuing my Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BSIT) and have advanced to the FINAL interview stage for a Systems Engineer internship. This would be my first professional experience in the IT field.

I currently maintain a 4.0 GPA, hold an entry-level cloud certification, and have completed hands-on cloud networking projects. My academic background also includes a university-awarded Computer Science Mathematics micro-credential, a specialization in software development, and coursework in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

I’m also preparing for my CCNA and plan to pursue Security+ as I continue developing my skills in networking, systems, cloud infrastructure, and security.

During my initial interview, HR mentioned that interns who perform well have a strong possibility of receiving a full-time offer afterward. That makes this opportunity particularly important to me because I’m hoping to establish a long-term career in infrastructure and eventually cloud engineering.
I’ve been advised to prepare using the STAR interview method. However, I’m curious about what else I should focus on before meeting with my final two interviewers.

For those who have interviewed for Systems Engineer internships or worked in similar positions:

What behavioral or technical questions should I prepare for?

How can I stand out against candidates who may already have internship experience?

What qualities do interviewers typically look for in entry-level Systems Engineer candidates?

What advice would you give someone hoping to turn an internship into a full-time engineering position?

I’d appreciate any insight or personal experiences. Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone, looking for some honest feedback on my resume.

I have a computer science degree and about a year in IT support at a managed service provider. I have been applying to support engineer and integration engineer roles as a step toward software engineering or AI work in the long run.

The problem is I keep getting rejected early and have not landed a single interview yet, so I feel like something is off with the resume itself. Does it read too much like general IT support? What would you cut or change?

Resume: https://imgur.com/a/5p2bRU7

Thanks for any advice.

So I applied for a Tier 1 Helpdesk position and I've done the recruiter interview which was mainly an introduction alongside some technical questions, after that went well I did an interview with the manager of service desk ( the guy who would be my manager in case i get hired) that went really well and they said that I smashed the interview, The interview was mostly technical focused, got asked a lot of technical questions and what would you do if this and that scenario questions alongside some culture fit.

Now I am on to the next round which is with the Head of IT, and I am not quite sure what that would be about. The recruiter mentioned that it will probably be technically focused aswell so i am kinda worried what else shall i be knowing haha. and the one after is with the CEO.

I'd appreciate some insight

I'm mainly asking this question because I recently declined an interview last minute on Indeed after seeing the LLC and the interviewer didn't exist.

The meter grant looks like something too good to be true for a student like me and I know this toes the line with promotions and advertisement, but I literally cannot find anything on reddit or the internet about this except for a youtube video and their own blog post and can't help but be suspicious.

Blog Post https://www.meter.com/blog/meter-grants

This company sent me an email inviting me to a recruitment session where I could potentially get a job, but I am very skeptical. This company is apparently an ISP based in the south around Florida and Georgia, but I have not been able to find much about them outside of LinkedIn and Instagram, and they are not verified on either platform. Not even Reddit has talked much about them and if they’re legit. Should I trust them and sign up for the event? Or should I avoid them at all costs?

Basically I’m looking for some career advice in the IT and consulting space.

I’ve worked a plethora of jobs over the years and about four years ago made the transition into IT. I’m currently a Business Systems Manager for a company that primarily uses the Microsoft suite.
My background is a little unconventional. I have a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, and Microsoft’s AI-900 certification. Most of what I know about IT has come from hands on experience teaching myself and figuring things out as problems come up.

In my current role I spend most of my time finding ways to improve business processes through automation, data integration, and reporting. I work pretty heavily with Power BI, Power Query, Power Automate, and Power Apps.

One of my biggest projects right now is developing a centralized data infrastructure for a company that generates a few million in annual revenue. The company has historically operated with very little data collection or reporting, so I’m essentially helping build that foundation from scratch. The goal is to eventually connect data across our different systems, automate a significant amount of manual work, and give leadership actual metrics to make business decisions.

I’ve also developed automation for financial processes, worked on integrating data from external companies, and built internal applications to replace manual workflows.

What I’ve realized is that I really enjoy the business side of technology. I like understanding how a company operates, figuring out where things are inefficient, and coming up with solutions. I enjoy building the solutions too, but I think my biggest strength is being able to understand both the business problem and the technology needed to solve it.

I’m in my mid 30s and currently making around $65,000 a year. I’m trying to figure out how to make that jump into a higher level of compensation.

I’ve been considering IT consulting, business technology consulting, solutions architecture, or eventually moving into some type of director position. I’ve also thought about doing consulting on the side, helping smaller businesses with automation, reporting, and process improvements.

My biggest concern is that I don’t have a traditional IT education. I know how to build things and solve problems, but I’m not a software engineer, and I wouldn’t consider myself an expert programmer. My experience is spread across several different areas rather than being extremely specialized in one.

I guess what I’m trying to figure out is whether I should continue developing my technical skills, focus more on the business and management side, or start positioning myself for consulting.

For anyone who has been in a similar position or works in IT leadership or consulting, what would you recommend?

If you were in my shoes, what would you focus on over the next 2 to 3 years?

Are there particular skills, certifications, or experiences that would make the biggest difference?

Do I need to focus on networking and try to grow my career there? What’s the best way to do this?

I just don’t want to spend the next several years heading in the wrong direction.

Back at help desk after job searching for 2 years and bored outta my mind. Which jobs in this industry are actually fun?

Atm of speaking, my uni plans to conduct an edutech hackathon and as someone still taking a network cert(HCIA) I feel I can enter such a hackathon with my currently developing skills. My rough plan for now is an ap/ru IOT network for immersive teaching environments for lower levels. For demonstrating such network architecture and structures, what are some recommended methods?

I've got some interviews for help desk positions coming up and I was wondering if there are any good questions I could ask that would make the interviewer think I am worth escalating to the next level of interviews. I already know a question or two, but the trouble is sometimes I'm interviewing with a screener and not someone who actually knows the IT department.

It's been about 5 years since my last interview at my current job. I didn't have this kind of phase 1 interview, super saiyan 2 interview and so on. Last month i had a user interview with a company. Today they contacted me for offering via teams. I just can't picture it at all. What are we going to talk about? I thought they'd just send me some papers with conditions and policies and obligations, and if i agree, i sign it.

Anyone with experiences please share with me.

For context on everything, I’m based in Australia.

I completed high school without doing exams, so I didn’t get an ATAR. For the Americans, ATAR is like the Australian equivalent to the GPA. Without an ATAR, I can’t get into university (at least directly) unless I use an alternative pathway or wait until I’m of mature-age (roughly 21 I think).

TAFE is a vocational option for me to get certificates in several fields, including IT, some of which are free. But I don’t know if these certificates do or do not qualify me for even a service desk job.

Does anyone have any experience with TAFE and entering the IT industry (specifically help desk) with no university experience?

I really want to start career in IT. Which direction do I go to? Cybersecurity? Data science? Something related to AI?

Looking forward go get some feedback

I finally had done it. Today I snapped and had a mental breakdown due to high levels of stress. It’s affecting my personal life and relationships.

I can’t disconnect from work. It’s constant firefighting, management that prioritises speed vs planning and building stable solutions. Accumulating tech debt, high pressure, on calls. I came to to realise how this is a thankless and ungrateful line of work.

We became the hub for everyone’s problems. Even devs have grown accustomed to throw every single problem over the fence to us because this company fostered this chat ops, always available culture. As a result, devs don’t even bother troubleshooting their own applications, it’s always on us to debug and gather evidence it’s not infrastructure problem. We now deployed tools and gave them more permissions but it’s useless. Devs just won’t take ownership of their problems now, it’s too late.

I despise and hate all the tools SRE engineers manage: YAML is horrible and all the ecosystem built around it to make it even more horrible. It’s a monster being used for things it was never supposed to be used for in the first place. Terraform is clunky, static, slow. I hate monitoring and debugging the 800th performance issue and latency of the day. I don’t like kubernetes and I’m tired of pretending this over complicated mess makes life easier, it does not, it’s bloated, complex and hard to maintain.

Don’t even get me started with that helm templating abomination. All in all I came to the conclusion that I’m so done with this line of work, it makes me miserable. It makes me regret having built a career spanning a decade in this area. I wish I went into software engineering, life is so much easier as a dev. High paying salaries, low stress and everybody congratulates you when you deploy a new feature. As an SRE? People only remember you when things break and they point a finger to blame you.

Money is not worth it. If you are going this career path, don’t do it for the money. You will regret it. As for me, I don’t know how I am going to reinvent myself. But I’m done.

End of complaint.

So long story short, I am very depressed and burnt out of school (5th year studying computer science). I'm burning money paying for classes I'm not even really paying attention in.

I'd like to just get a job, and maybe just finish my degree one class at a time. I figured a help desk job might be my best bet seeing as I don't really have a degree yet.

I'm not like, an *expert* on all things computer related, I've never built or taken one apart, but I can solve most of my own issues that I've had with my computers just by googling stuff.

As the title states, it was my first interview process for this part of my career. I'm a student pursuing Cybersecurity and this meeting had me so frazzled because its so different compared to working food service jobs as I'm used to. I knew that it was going to be different and I know it won't be the last. I just wanted to come talk about it with people.

We had a brief phone interview two days ago and they emailed me asking for me to come in for an in person interview. So I prepared, but I know I could've prepared better. They asked me some simple questions to gauge my collaborative ability and technical knowledge. I've only just begun practicing what I've learned in hands on labs within my own personal VM and since I'm fairly new, I felt so under prepared!! Of course this role is aimed at students wanting to learn, but my lack of hands on experience made me lose confidence mid interview. I felt comfortable again once I just started answering how my previous jobs working in the food industry put me in situations of problem solving, team collaboration, and the skills I learned through that.

So even though I'm beating myself up about it a little, I'm happy to have gotten the interview and real practice in the situation. I want to take it upon myself to do even more hands on work on my free time. I already have a couple projects I want to start on. It's just figuring out where to start was confusing, I felt kinda lost. But after this experience I feel like I just have to keep learning, practicing, applying. I'm not dreading it but I definitely learned unforgettable things from my feelings after this interview.

Thank you for coming to my TedTalk

I'm 31F, transitioning into IT and currently learning ServiceNow. I'm looking for someone experienced in the ServiceNow ecosystem who could guide me on becoming job-ready, choosing the right skills, and navigating my first job search.

I'm learning on my own and could really use some practical career guidance.

Please be kind, guys. The world is already cruel enough out there.

Any advice or mentorship would mean a lot. Thank you!

I got an interview on Microsoft Teams to meet the IT team. I will be talking with 4 of the IT staff on the call which is the entire team. And it is supposed to be an interview to see if they like me, not really technical. So does anyone have advice for this? I thought vibes interviews were usually in person and resulted in an offer if they like you. But this is on Teams. The recruiter said it’s just an interview to see if they like me and see if I can make small talk and be outgoing. This is only the third real interview I’ve gotten besides just talking with recruiters on the phone.

So what usually happens after this interview and what’s some advice you have for doing well? I’m an awkward person because I’m autistic… I got to find ways to be more confident.

I've noticed that some individuals get many interviews but ultimately not the job. I've always asked for reasons why I didnt get the job after a failed interview and have worked on improving myself.

I see posts from people who get multiple interviews, but rarely an explanation as to why they weren't selected. Hoping this thread feeds my curiosity and can highlight any pitfalls that are common when job junting

Hardware Support

Software Support

Introduction to Networking Communications

Linux 1

This will be about my second DE class. The previous class was on IT basic fundamentals, but that was so long ago Im pretty sure i forgot a good amount. I (think) i want to enter something networks or systems administration or something along those lines, but im not 100% sure. As long as its not super programming or math heavy, I dont think i mind. I also dont mind the idea of help desk, but ive heard it can be very deadend. Also I can only take one due to my class schedule.

I’m deciding between two junior tech support jobs and could use some outside opinions.

First one:

(small IT company, around 15-30 people)

• They say it’s a mix of system + helpdesk
• Longer hours (8:30–18:00) + on-call weekends once in two months
• About an hour commute each way
• Lower salary, but they mentioned it can go up after a few months if I do well..

Second one:

Second one (much bigger company, a few hundred people)

• Straight helpdesk (Windows, Office 365, AD, hardware, etc.)
• Better hours (8–17) + on-call weekends
• Very close to home
• Higher salary

I’m just starting out, no real system experience. I care about learning proper technical/system stuff so I can grow later, but I also care about having a life outside work (gym, friends, etc.). The commute + longer days seems harsh..

i've worked helpdesk at a hospital call center (hell) for a year and a half and afterwards a noc for half a year (couldn't manage the 24/7 swing shifts)

What would you pick and why?

Thanks..